The trip to the Jeddah airport and subsequently to Madinah has been indited by my sister in her blog , http://zeroicecold.blogspot.com/2010/08/umrah-saga.html . So , I'll just go through with the stuff in Mecca.
This is in Madinah by the way
*For your information, in both Masjid Nabawi and MasjidilHaram, wheelchairs are provided for free for those who lack the ability or strength to stand for a long period.
Oh , for those who are wondering what the title represent, that is what the wheelchair - pushers ( heard of paper-pushers ? well this one doing wheelchairs ) said as a warning. Warning for what , you might ask ? That single line of enunciation (which means " Sir , Sir, move ..psssttt.. psstt" ) should make you :
[1] Check your bloody behind
[2] Walk faster or..
[3] Move out of the way !
If you didn't do any of the listed three, be prepared to be rammed by a wheelchair or kicked by the person that sits in the 'vehicle' (this applies to certain wheelchair-bound people only ) Think this is a joke ? That was what actually happened to my two brothers , Syukri and Udin, and myself. Only Udin got the chance to be kicked, actually. And the person who kicked him at the back of the knees was an old lady. This incident happened during the last few days of the trip, when Udin and I were doing our non-obligatory tawaf ( tawaf sunat ) while we were waiting for Isyak prayer.
The 2nd floor tawaf path is where he is standing
Aiman : Lost and Found
In my sister's post, she mentioned that Aiman got lost in Masjidil Haram, but she didn't tell the whole story. Since, I was at the scene, I'll relate the story. Here goes :
One evening , a day after Syukri related to Udin and I that he had had the chance to touch the Holy Kaabah, we three decided to go as close to the Kaabah as we can get. Just for the experience of touching it. Since Syukri had done it before, he lead us. By us, I meant the entire occupants of Room 504 ( Syukri, Udin, Aiman and I ). And so, during Maghrib prayer, we are three saf beside the Kaabah.
Right after the prayer, we went to get close. And , Io and behold, suddenly the people doing the tawaf increased in number. Not only that, as we got nearer to the Kaabah, the people are more aggresive. They pushed and pulled. I managed to take a close-up picture of the Kaabah before the tide of people and infinite limbs started to overwhelm me. Aiman, who was near me at the time, was pushed towards the Kaabah while I was pushed further from it. Hence, Aiman got lost. I tried to locate him but failed. I therefore, headed to our pre-agreed meeting point to rendezvous with Syukri and Udin ( who both were separated from Aiman and I after the prayer ). I waited and waited but they didn't show up.
I decided, then, to head back down to the courtyard. On the way, I met the pair of brothers. Syukri, who had a local SIM card on his phone told me that Ustaz Fadhil contacted him, saying that he had found Aiman and will be meeting us under the green light that is used to indicate the start of the tawaf.We quickly headed there and found Aiman with Ustaz Fadhil and three other fellow KRS Travel Group people ( Pakcik Dollah was one of them). Ustaz told me that he had a 'hunch' to look at the Kaabah after the prayer and just so happens to see Aiman being accosted by an Arabian police officer. (The police officers wore brown uniforms and probably stationed at the mosque to help control the Jemaah ) . At first, when the Ustaz approached the pair and claimed that he knew Aiman, the officer disinclined to hand Aiman over. Only when Aiman said that he also know Ustaz Fadhil did the officer handed him over.
For the closure, let us view several pictures...
Here you go, nice and fresh !
The rooftop of Masjidil Haram : strictly adult males only
The hotel across the Holy Mosque, taken from the roof of Masjidil Haram
I don't know how many floors but guessed somewhere around 5
The entrance of the shopping center below the hotel
Not Dunkin' Donuts nor Big Apple but it's House of Donuts !
The donuts here are bigger than in Malaysia even though the price are
quite the same for the donuts in the two aforementioned 'sellers'
A sample of their box. The Arabic is "Baitu al-Dhonut"
The common plug and socket in the Hijaz as opposed to
our common three-pin plug and socket
"Let's watch some TV ! "
Common disposable cups for hot (front) and cold (two at the back)
drinks
to build more hotels
